No one likes to make a mistake. I know I certainly don’t. But it happens to all of us. Some mistakes are the result of a poor choice.

Other mistakes are just dumb. They happen during a temporary lapse of attention, and afterwards we can see how easily they might have been avoided.

A few years ago in the early weeks of December, I made a dumb mistake. For a moment, I did not pay attention. As a result, a person I value might have felt uncomfortable and just as he was starting a new role.

Lucky for me, the person in question has a great sense of humour.

It was my job to organize a gathering of board members from across Western Canada. We began with a networking dinner, which was to be followed by meetings the next day.

I selected an appropriate restaurant and arranged for the menu in advance.

People arrived in cabs I'd organized. The networking was great, the dinner was delicious, and the atmosphere was fun.

Everyone thanked me as we were heading out the door. I hailed some cabs and away we went. Thinking about how well the gathering went, I didn't pay close attention to the people as they got into their cabs.

I was partway back to the hotel when one of the people in my cab asked if I'd seen the newest member of our board get into a cab.

My heart sank as I admitted that I wasn't sure. Already, I knew the nature of my mistake and I worried about the consequences.

We arrived at the hotel and I watched two other cabs arrive. Neither of them carried the newest member of the board. Everyone else was accounted for.

I was wondering what I could do to fix my mistake when finally a third cab arrived. The newest member of our board got out of the vehicle.

He'd had to wait a while, but he'd made his own arrangements for a cab.

When I apologized, he gave me a lighthearted chuckle and graciously told me not to worry about it.

The next day at our meeting, the mishap with the cabs was a topic of conversation and a source of gentle teasing throughout the day.

I was less inclined to laugh with them because I felt bad about my mistake. Many people see a mistake as a failure. I've come to understand that a mistake is only a failure if you don't learn it.

If we remain willing to grow, mistakes have a lot to give us.

Mistakes can be our best teachers. We gain wisdom from mistakes and they help us build character.The truth is that none of us can succeed without making a few mistakes.

Provided we take ownership and grow, wonderful things can happen from mistakes. Taking responsibility is the first step in learning.

Once we've done that, we can look at what happened from a better perspective and figure out how to prevent it from ever happening again.

The day after the mix-up with the cabs, I apologized to the newest member of the board and promised the whole group that it would not happen again.

The next year, the board met again. Quite a bit of time had passed, but people remembered what had happened.

As we waited for cabs, they laughed about it and I did too. But I was the last person to leave. Before I even considered getting into a cab, I made sure that everyone had a ride.

Action Steps:

Think about a mistake you made recently.

• What went wrong?

• When, where, and why did it go wrong?

• How did you contribute to making things go wrong?

• What did you learn from this experience?

• Going forward, how will you apply what you learned?

The best is yet to come. It starts with you.

Your friends,
The UpCloseTeam